Tokyo, Dec 5, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - Asiana Airlines and ANA (All Nippon Airways) agreed today to expand their code-sharing agreement to cover all 18 Korea-Japan routes, and to strengthen strategic collaboration in related fields.
The President and COO of Asiana Airlines, Joo-an Kang and ANA President and CEO, Mineo Yamamoto, met today in Seoul, where they agreed to extend cooperation on code-sharing flights to cover all routes operated by both airlines between Korea and Japan by February 2007.
The two presidents also decided to actively pursue strategic collaboration in related fields such as sales, transportation, purchasing and the exchange of personnel.
With today's announcement, both airlines are expecting to provide even greater benefits and convenience to customers travelling between Korea and Japan, and in turn improve profitability. The new code-sharing agreement will cover 154 weekly services over 18 routes, up from the previous 6 routes, and enable ANA to offer service to each of the major Korean cities of Seoul, Busan, and Jeju.
Asiana and ANA have been code-sharing on services covering Korea-Japan routes since 2000, and were the first-ever and only Korea-Japan airline partners at that time. In 2002 they were also the first Korea-Japan airline partners to offer customers the benefit of a Frequent Flyer tie-up, even prior to Asiana's official joining of Star Alliance. In April of this year, Asiana and ANA laid the foundation for extensive cooperation by becoming the first and only carriers of their respective countries to offer joint cargo operations on all Korea-Japan routes.
As Asiana and ANA are members of Star Alliance, customers of either airline are already able to accrue and redeem mileage on any route operated by either carrier, and the extended code-sharing flights will be no exception. Top-tie customers and frequent flyers will also have complete access to the lounges of both carriers, as well as receiving other benefits.
Along with the other 16 Star Alliance member carriers, Asiana and ANA are able to offer their customers smooth travel to 841 destinations in 157 countries. Through the development of round-the-world and other regional fare packages, Star Alliance Upgrade Awards, and other innovative products, Star Alliance was recently awarded the Best Airline Alliance by Business Traveler Magazine.
About ANA
All Nippon Airways (TSE: 9202), or ANA, is the seventh largest airline in the world by passenger load (IATA ranking) and Japan's largest domestic carrier. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of US$8.1bn (JPY932bn) as of 29 Sep 2006. Carrying almost 50 million passengers every year to 50 destinations in Japan and 23 cities throughout Asia, Europe and the United States, ANA is recognized for outstanding passenger service both on the ground and in the air. In the greatest Japanese tradition of mixing hospitality with high technology, personalised a la carte service complements state-of-the-art entertainment systems and the latest in cabin design. ANA has been in the airline business for over 50 years, and combined with ANA Group companies, its activities extend across a host of complete travel and aviation-related services. For more information, please visit www.ana.co.jp.
Contact:
Asiana Public Relations
Jason Kim: hjkim76@asiana.com
ANA Public Relations
Rob Henderson: r.henderson@ana.co.jp
Dec 5, 2006
Source: ANA
ANA (TSE: 9202) (U.S: ALNPY)
From the Japan Corporate News Network
http://www.japancorp.net
Topic: Press release summary
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